The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 159

Chapter 159 – Reborn

As before, my mages began drawing the circles, under my direction. But, this time, I was not standing with them, in the greater circle around the seal. That was why I had brought out eight, not seven, mages this time. I had risen to take the seat of Death in the Athelian Spire, being the most powerful Death Mage in the land, but before my ascension that seat had been held by another, and he yet remained in my army, as one of the undead.

For the first time since I’d returned home, Thom Deathspeaker, revenant and former Magelord of Death of the Athelian Spire, came to answer my call. Standing separately from the seven other Magelords, he bowed low to me. “Ah, my Queen. I see that things have progressed to the final stage.” He must have seen the confusion in my aura, because he laughed. “You may have kept me in your pocket dimension, with all your armies and all your treasures, but I was a loyal servant of Murena in life, and in death. And she has seen fit to inform me of all you have been doing. I am proud of you, my student, my successor, my Queen.”

That… actually hit harder than I had ever expected it to. When we were summoned to Onerth, Thom had argued against it, though he could not go against his king’s command. When the nobles decided to enslave us, and turn us into puppets, he had been one of the few to argue against such things, and had done his best to protect myself, and Christian, one of my classmates, who had been a Spiritualist, a Death Witch. We were his charges, and so he had the most authority over us, after the King. But he could not be everywhere at once.

“Thank you, my old teacher. Then, you know the rite, as it must be done?”

“Indeed. And I take it you will try and take it on, yourself? This will not be like the other seals, you know this, yes? A unified ascension is not something to be taken lightly.”

“But who else is there who might succeed at such a thing? And, even should I choose to share the burden, I am too far altered from mortal stock, and the bindings between the souls of those in my army and my will prevent any of them from synching their souls to mine. Even you, Teacher. There is none other who can do it, and so it must be me.”

The Archnecromancer nodded once. “Very well, I shall do all I can in order to ensure your success. And do not worry about this lot,” he said, motioning towards the other seven. “They may complain about your actions back in our world, but they have long since accepted the realities of fate. If they were going to try and betray you, they would have done it long before now.”

“I know,” I nodded, “but I thank you for the assurance all the same. Now, please help the others prepare the circles. We might not be in a terrible rush, but we still should move as quickly as possible.”

My old teacher just bowed, and turned to start working with the other Magelords, and I took a moment to deposit the crystal shard with the dragon’s memories in my pocket dimension. That done, I took a moment to look to the mortals who had come with me. “The rite to undo the last of the seals is about to begin. Once it begins, there will be no stopping it, and any interference may result in destruction on a continental scale. Therefore, the Lich Queen commands you all stay back, and observe. And more, I say unto you, be not afraid, for if this succeeds, then nothing will happen, but should it fail, it will be over too quickly to feel any pain. So, let go the pointless fears, and hold to thoughts of what shall come when the seal is loosed.”

“And what will come?” asked Lieutenant Hughes.

“A world of true magic. For those who have not the talent of a thaumaturge, they will all be able to discover and grow power within themselves. For those who already have a hint of power, it will be akin to going from an electric bicycle to a motorcycle. And for those who are already trained, it will be as if a whole new world of possibilities are opened to them.”

Eri was the next to speak. “But what about you, Sister? Your disciples mentioned that this ritual put a lot of strain on whoever was the focus of it.”

“It does, but I will be fine. I have undergone similar trials before. Not tapping into a Wellspring, true, but the spell I use to temporarily transform into a Warrior, rather than a Mage, puts great strain upon me. And I am the way I am because I sealed my soul away, even as poison coursed through me and my heart refused to beat, allowing me to transform into a lich.

“Moreover, it is as I said to my old teacher, the one who taught me of magic and Magick when I was first summoned into the other world. There is none but me who can do this. The gap between my soul and any of yours, my power level and yours, is too high. There is no way that we would be able to synchronize our souls enough to succeed. Instead of increasing our chances, it would ensure failure, and doom countless millions.”

“Your Majesty,” called Princess Iseult, Magelord of Fire, Second Seat of the Athelian Spire, and former Crown Princess of Athelia-That-Was, “the circles are ready. We can begin.”

I nodded once, and turned away from the mortals walking into the circle designed for me. As I did so, I stroked the ankh around my neck sending my clothes and armor into its storage, before moving the rest of my equipment to my pocket dimension. As I told all the mortals who had undergone this trial before me, there was no guarantee that anything I wore would survive the rite, and each piece of equipment was a priceless relic, even in the other world. Here, even my rings were unique artifacts that no craftsman or artisan could match, even if they had a full lifespan to learn their craft.

Such power was necessary, of course, to stand up to the rigors of not just war, but the everyday use of someone who had risen as far in power as I had. Most people thought that those who reached the highest levels of mastery only outfitted themselves with gear of the highest possible grade, as though armor made of unholy mithril or dragonbone was a fashion statement or a sign of vanity. The truth was that, simply put, equipment made by lesser craftsmen using lesser materials would simply not stand up to the everyday life of those who could march day and night for a week without end, or who could casually lift an elephant over their head. If they did not get equipment designed to last, then they would constantly be suffering ‘wardrobe malfunctions’.

Thankfully, I was a lich, so it wasn’t like I was showing off anything more than a skeleton, save for, perhaps, the crystal floating within my chest, where my heart once was. A lesser lich might hesitate before showing off their phylactery like this, but I doubted any of the mortals save my disciples understood what the crystal might truly be. Even if they did, I was content in the knowledge that I had personally enhanced it to the point where that crystal made a diamond look like a sugar cube in comparison, and then I enchanted it with as many protections as I could manage. Even Onedeirth’s flames would not scorch it easily.

I stepped into the circle, and focused on the energies flowing around and through me. The stone around us was augmenting the flows, and so I needed to take that into account. But I was the High Magus of the Athelian Spire for a reason, and I knew how to work with power sites. My eyes met Iseult’s, and I nodded.

Eight voices began to speak as one, chanting in the High Athelian tongue. Invoking the power to unmake the seal, and channel its energies through a single vessel. The colors of mana began moving faster within the prism, swirling about as Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, Shadow, Life, and Death all fought for dominance and sought balance simultaneously. The multicolored rainbow began to merge, becoming colorless.

CRACK!

The crack already present expanded. And now the dragon’s cast-off flesh was subsumed into the seal itself. But I did not have time to consider the finer points of how it merged with the seal, for that was when the energies of the seal fell upon me. And then, all the outside world ceased to matter.

I was caught in a whirlwind. I was battered by the waterfall. I was thrown into the inferno. I was caught beneath the landslide. I was thrown into the depths of the void. I was bathed in searing light. I was infused with thousands of biting motes of life. I was crushed by the sheer finality of entropy’s end.

All of this, and more, I experienced, all at once. My body was ripped apart and fused together, torn asunder and made anew. My mind and soul burned with the energies flowing through me. All of existence was pain.

But I knew pain. I’d experienced it before. Pain had kept me conscious as I transformed myself into a lich. Pain walked with me whenever I used the Warrior Form spell. Pain allowed me to gauge my enemies, when they were capable of actually harming me. Any mage upon the battlefield had to learn to push through the pain, or they would be easy prey for those they fought against. I was no masochist who enjoyed pain, but I had long passed the point where pain was anything but a teacher and guide, rather than something to be feared or avoided. This pain could not overcome me, would not defeat me.

Words half-forgotten sprang to mind. A mantra that one of my classmates had uttered, just after our summoning, when we were all lost and afraid at the sudden change. His words had calmed us then, and I said them now to myself.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

The words helped me focus through the pain. Thoughts of my classmates, lost all those years ago, and everything I had been through since. The long war against the Demon King. My careful preparations to ensure Onerth paid for its callous use of summoning magic and reckless use of soul-binding slave collars. My eventual return.

And then, release! The pain dropped away, and allowed me to think clearly once more. But I was in darkness. I could sense the living and undead around me, but there was some thin barrier between us. I moved, and realized that I had curled into the fetal position. Now, I had some idea of what had happened. I pushed again, and the shell of my egg broke, allowing me to be reborn.0

Light returned as my claws burst through the shell. The rest of it fell away shortly after, as strength returned to my limbs. And then, I stood, and saw the world in sharper focus than I had before. I felt my wings unfurl, as I stretched a body that I both knew as my own, and yet felt alien to, learning about it as I went. I was changed, this much I knew, but how much had I changed, and into what?